“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of high-frequency trading,” Wedbush said. “Their business is a trading business, and volatility creates far more opportunities. Some of their algorithms and automated systems are trading two, three or five times as many shares as they would in a more normalized environment.”

According to Wedbush, HFT firms have made up some 75% of U.S. equity volume this month.

Earlier this month, an unhappy Biggs said that he suspected “that we’re now into a high-frequency trading, momentum-driven cascading downturn.”

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